ELEVENTH BIENNIAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BAROQUE MUSIC

Manchester, 14th-18th July 2004

Abstract

Gérard Géay (Centre de Musique
Baroque, Versailles)

Le deuterus et la genèse du mode mineur at XVIIe
siècle

Because of the unusual place of the semitone between the
first and the second degree, the tetrachord of the deuterus could not be
used in the modern minor scale without sharpening its second degree. Therefore
the Phrygian tetrachord was transformed into a Dorian one. The use of
accidentals in polyphonic music contributed to destroy the properties of the
early modes, to fuse them together and to give birth progressively to the minor
key.